…Assures he will balance revenue collection and trade facilitation
The Managing Director of Muna Sylver Nigeria Limited, Princess Chi Ezeh has tipped the newly appointed Customs Area Controller, Tin Can Island Port, TCIP, Comptroller Dera Nnadi mni, to balance trade facilitation and revenue collection at the port.
Princess Chi observed that creating a balance between both indices pose the highest challenge confronting Customs bosses across seaports, land borders and airports.
The freight forwarder, who is also a Governing Council member of the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria, CRFFN, made this remark during a chat with newsmen in Lagos, yesterday.
According to her, Nigeria is in a critical economic state which requires enhanced efforts by Customs and other government agencies to prioritize trade facilitation, while revenue generation equally remains a top-priority for the government.
“Comptroller Dera Nnadi has distinguished himself as a revenue mobilizer as witnessed during his 8-month tenure as Area Controller at Seme. We recall that the land borders had been closed to trade for some years and reopened few months before his posting; but in spite of the numerous challenges which affected cross-border trading around that border corridor, he led the Customs Command to surpass her 2023 fiscal target by more than N122 Million with three and half months to spare.
“While the revenue attainment at Seme Border has been lavishly celebrated; as a freight forwarder, I am more concerned about the business environment which is usually influenced by the Area Controller. Comptroller Nnadi’s penchant for collaboration and ease of doing business can be seen in his push for the removal of illegal checkpoints on the Seme/Badagry expressway. We expect that he would bring the same vigour to eliminate some bottlenecks in Customs processes at Tin Can Island Port”, she said.
Princess Chi, however, intimated that she has enjoyed a professional work experience with the new Tin Can Area Controller since his previous role when he was a Deputy Controller in-charge of Enforcement at TCIP.
She opined that some recent commendable developments have been observed within a fortnight since Nnadi’s appointment as TCIP Area Controller, highlighting the 9am time alloted for cargo examination and robust stakeholders engagements as good initiatives.
“The Comptroller Dera Nnadi-led operations for Customs at the TCIP will be service-driven with early cargo examination already addressed with the new 9am schedule for cargo examination. I specially welcome him back to TCIP. However, I want to encourage him not to rest on his oars because he has set the bar really high in his previous appointments. He would have to work harder to surpass his already high standards.
“I know that he can balance this issue of trade facilitation and revenue generation at the Command. Nnadi is a revenue mobilizer and a distinguished career officer. Freight forwarding practitioners can be sure that there will be mutually beneficial approaches to business at the port”, she remarked.
Since his move to TCIP, Comptroller Nnadi has held robust meetings with various categories of stakeholders as he provided opportunities for stakeholders to have a heart-to-heart talk with his leadership on problematic issues, even as he sought their partnership in attaining the remaining 48 percent of the command’s revenue target for 2023.
Photo: Comptroller Dera Nnadi, Customs Area Controller, Tincan Island Port Command and Princess Chi Ezeh, Managing Director, Muna Sylver Nigeria Limited.
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